1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor. More specifically, the present invention relates to technology for controlling a semiconductor light emitting element.
2. Related Art
Generally, projectors use high-pressure mercury lamps as light sources. In recent years, however, semiconductor lasers have been utilized as the light sources of the projectors. Examples of such projectors are found in Japanese Patent Application No. JP-A-2000-294871 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,407.
In the configurations where the semiconductor laser is used, the intensity or amount of light emitted from the semiconductor laser can vary due to heat generation even though the input value thereto is not changed. Unfortunately, this may cause the image displayed by the projector to be different from the original image represented by the original image data. This phenomenon is particularly prominent in configurations where the semiconductor laser uses the thermal lens effect.
It should be noted that the problem described above is not limited to semiconductor lasers but may also occur when other semiconductor light emitting elements, such as a light emitting diodes, are used. Further, the problem described above is not limited to projectors, and may occur in other light source devices, including the semiconductor light emitting elements.